Olivia Nolley listens to Taylor Swift like most other eleven-year-old girls. Like most other girls, Olivia Nolley dreams of meeting her favorite pop star someday. But unlike most other girls, Olivia Nolley has been diagnosed with an incurable cancer.

Student Council began planning and promoting L.U.C.K. (Legacy Uniting through Caring and Kindness) week for, February 16 through the 19. The four day fund-raising week will sponsor Olivia Nolley, a fifth-grader who has been diagnosed with Ana plastic Astrocytoma , a malignant cancer.

“More than anything L.U.C.K. Week started as raising money,” Student Council sponsor Dena Schimming said, “but what it’s turned into is trying to help this little cancer patient fifth-grader feel like a rock star. It’s not me that’s doing that; it’s the teenagers on this campus.”

Connor Johns, 9, told Mrs. Schimming Olivia’s story, to see if there was anything they could do for her. When Mrs. Schimming presented the different options for L.U.C.K. Week to the Student Council, they chose Olivia.

“It just felt great to know I could do something for her, and do whatever we can to help her,” Johns said.

In order to raise the goal of $10,000, the Student Council will sell rubber bracelets with “Olivia” inscribed on them. They will also hold a “Mr. Miss LHS” beauty pageant, a pageant which reminds the family of Olivia’s deceased father who competed and won a similar event in high school. Other events include a Cheer-A-Thon, an open mike night hosted by the choir and a final pep rally at the end of the week.

“I hope that we can reach the goal of $10,000. Since Olivia’s dad passed away two years ago, her mom is really plagued with a lot of medical expenses,” Mrs. Schimming said. “So we hope that we can raise the money to offset some of those for her.”

Because the Student Council became so submerged in Olivia’s story, some of the members went to meet her at the hospital a few days after her birthday. They learned a lot about the girl, who had just been knighted by a prince at Medieval Times, including she didn’t let her condition get her down.

“Meeting her was a very bittersweet experience,” senior Kris Stroud said. “When you look at her she’s not sad or down. She’s just a girl. But with all the machines hooked up to her and knowing her story, it made it sad.”

After Pink Fest, Mrs. Schimming and her students had to decide where the $30,000 would go. They chose Moncrief Cancer Resources, which happens to be where Olivia receives her treatment everyday.

“I think that the big picture we can see is how our campus service is just coming together, as if it were planned, when we didn’t plan it,” Mrs. Schimming said. “It’s just really cool to see all these things come full circle, and how they’re connected.”

After hearing about Olivia’s story, STUCO began sending Olivia and her mother, Judy, personal messages through caringbridge.org, [OLIVIA’S LINK] where Judy keeps an updated journal. Many more have been inspired in an effort to persuade Taylor Swift to show up at the pep rally on Feb. 19, by starting a fan page on facebook.com called, “If you want Taylor Swift at Legacy during L.U.C.K. Week.”

“We enjoyed meeting two groups of teenagers from Legacy High School in Mansfield this week,” Mrs. Nolley said, in a journal entry. “What great examples they are for Olivia.  She is so excited about their fund raiser and all the activities they have planned during L.U.C.K. Week for Olivia. God is touching so many lives through Olivia including her mom.”